Press Release
Continental heads research project “Ko-HAF – Cooperative Highly Automated Driving”
 BMWi flagship project “Ko-HAF” launched with 16 partners
 Continental takes on overall project coordination
 The aim of the research is highly automated driving at higher speeds
Frankfurt am Main, Germany, August 6, 2015. The international automotive supplier Continental is
taking on coordination of the “Ko-HAF – Cooperative Highly Automated Driving” combined
research project. Cooperative here refers to the interaction between several highly automated
vehicles. “The research initiative takes us a major step forward in the direction of automated
driving, with road safety at the highest level being its essential basis. Ko-HAF researches not only
the involvement of the driver in highly automated driving, but also cross-partner functions and
communication between the highly automated vehicles”, said Dr. Stefan Lüke, Ko-HAF Project
Coordinator, and responsible for Advanced Driver Assistance Systems & Automation in the
Advanced Engineering department in Continental’s Chassis & Safety Division. Together with a
consortium of automobile manufacturers, automotive suppliers and public partners, Ko-HAF was
launched on June 1, 2015. Ko-HAF has a total budget of 36.3 million euros and is expected to run
until November 2018. It is being supported by Germany’s Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and
Energy (BMWi) as the first project within the framework of its new program “New Vehicle and
System Technologies”.
Highly automated driving while reading e-mails
The aim of the project is to research new systems and functions permitting highly automated driving at higher speeds and in more complex situations. During highly automated driving, the driver no
longer has to monitor the systems permanently and can instead leave the chore of driving to the
vehicle for a certain time, freeing up time to read or write e-mails, for example. However, the driver
has to be able to take over the driving task within a certain time. For the time that the driver needs
to do so, it is necessary for the vehicle to correctly assess its surroundings and the traffic situation.
This is a particular challenge at higher speeds and in more complex scenarios. This is one of the
tasks that Ko-HAF is looking into: the starting point is a backend solution in which the vehicles
communicate with one another via a server, aided by mobile radio (LTE/UMTS). The server
collates and evaluates information about the vehicle surroundings, and makes it available to the
vehicles in a consistent form. This method of forward-looking driving is necessary for high
automation in more complex situations.
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Your contact:
Soeren Pinkow, Phone: +49 69 7603 8492 / Miriam Baum, Phone: +49 69 7603 9510
-2Continental is involved in a variety of work packages with experts of its Chassis & Safety and Interior Divisions. For example, Continental is involved in the design of interfaces for a cross-company
exchange of information on surroundings and location via the server and to visualize the relative
and absolute position of the vehicle (precise position within the lane). Continental builds on its
“Motion Information to X Provider” (M2XPro) concept for the networking of dynamics sensors with
Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) information complemented with recognized landmarks.
A further focus of research for Continental is on new system functions that play an important role in
the cooperative interaction of vehicles. This focus is on lane changing, safe following distances and
driving maneuvers at the end of lanes. In addition, testing equipment and validation methods for
automated driving are being developed, which for example work on the basis of simulations.
Continental is also planning to incorporate vehicles into the project, to test their communications
and driving functions and to devise testing methods.
On the way to automated driving
The car of the future will offer automated driving in more and more driving situations, for example
in traffic jams or near roadworks. Depending on the driving situation, the driver will be able to hand
over the task of driving to the vehicle. As a systems supplier, Continental is ideally placed to develop solutions for automated driving and put them into series production. The fully automated car
will however not appear overnight: advanced driver assistance systems on the market today
represent the first step in this direction, and will allow an evolutionary development of future
automation stages. This evolution will need a lot more research and development work, even
though Continental can already look back on many years of development activity in the field of
automation. For example, in 2011 the company already developed a highly automated assistant for
driving in slow-moving traffic and near roadworks, as part of the EU research project HAVEit.
Research projects like PRORETA 1 to 4, AKTIV or AdaptIVe, and participation in the DARPA
Urban Challenge are just as important as a license for testing automated driving on public roads in
Nevada, USA. In December 2012, Continental was the world’s first automotive supplier to receive
this license for a test vehicle.
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Your contact:
Soeren Pinkow, Phone: +49 69 7603 8492 / Miriam Baum, Phone: +49 69 7603 9510
-3Continental develops intelligent technologies for transporting people and their goods. As a reliable partner,
the international automotive supplier, tire manufacturer, and industrial partner provides sustainable, safe,
comfortable, individual, and affordable solutions. In 2014, the corporation generated sales of approximately
€34.5 billion with its five divisions, Chassis & Safety, Interior, Powertrain, Tire, and ContiTech. Continental
currently employs more than 205,000 people in 53 countries.
The Chassis & Safety division develops and produces integrated active and passive driving safety
technologies as well as products that support vehicle dynamics. The product portfolio ranges from electronic
and hydraulic brake and chassis control systems to sensors, advanced driver assistance systems, airbag
electronics and sensorics as well as electronic air suspension systems all the way to windscreen washer
systems and headlight cleaning nozzles. The focus lies on a high level of system competence and the
networking of individual components. Thus products and system functions are developed along the
SensePlanAct chain of effects. They form the foundation for automated driving. Chassis & Safety employs
more than 38,000 people worldwide and generated sales of approximately €7.5 billion in 2014.
Contact for Journalists
Sören Pinkow
External Communications
Continental
Chassis & Safety Division
Guerickestr. 7
60488 Frankfurt am Main, Germany
Phone: +49 69 7603-8492
Fax: +49 69 7603-3945
E-Mail: soeren.pinkow@continentalcorporation.com
Miriam Baum
External Communications
Continental
Chassis & Safety Division
Guerickestraße 7
60488 Frankfurt am Main
Phone: +49 69 7603-9510
Fax: +49 69 7603-3945
E-Mail: miriam.baum@continentalcorporation.com
This press release is available in the following languages: German, English
Links
www.continental-automotive.com
www.continental-corporation.com
Online Media Database: www.continental-mediacenter.com
Your contact:
Soeren Pinkow, Phone: +49 69 7603 8492 / Miriam Baum, Phone: +49 69 7603 9510